1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to reclining mechanisms for vehicle seating assemblies, more specifically to heavy duty manually operated reclining mechanisms.
2. Background Art
Vehicle seats generally include a seat base and a seat back. Reclining mechanisms for vehicle seats allow the seats to be positioned to accommodate different body types and the personal comfort of seat occupants. Reclining mechanisms for vehicle seats permit the seat back to pivot to allow a passenger to recline or incline the seat.
Manually operated reclining mechanisms establish a locked position in which the seat back does not pivot and an unlocked position in which the seat back can pivot. The mechanism is switched between a locked position and an unlocked position when a user manually operates the reclining mechanism. The mechanism is returned to the normally locked position after the user adjusts the reclining mechanism. Full engagement of the reclining mechanism must be assured in the locked position.
Reclining mechanisms must meet or exceed performance specifications and must be simple for customers to use. Some seat manufacturing specifications have higher load specifications that may require the seat back hinge to withstand more than 4,000 Nm in the event of a collision. The components of prior art reclining mechanisms are not easily assembled into a compact package. The axial thickness of prior art reclining mechanisms in some instances exceeded the space available between the seat base and seat back.
Assembly of the reclining mechanism can be complicated and labor intensive. The need to assemble spring biased parts together may tend to complicate assembly processes because of the need to compress the spring as parts are assembled together in some designs.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the above problems and other problems that are addressed by the embodiments that are summarized below.